Open-source electronic data capture system offered increased accuracy and cost-effectiveness compared with paper methods in Africa

Abstract

Objectives: Existing electronic data capture options are often financially unfeasible in resource-poor settings or difficult to support technically in the field. To help facilitate large-scale multicenter studies in sub-Saharan Africa, the African Partnership for Chronic Disease Research (APCDR) has developed an open-source electronic questionnaire (EQ).

Study design and setting: To assess its relative validity, we compared the EQ against traditional pen-and-paper methods using 200 randomized interviews conducted in an ongoing type 2 diabetes case-control study in South Africa.

Results: During its 3-month validation, the EQ had a lower frequency of errors (EQ, 0.17 errors per 100 questions; paper, 0.73 errors per 100 questions; P-value ≤0.001), and a lower monetary cost per correctly entered question, compared with the pen-and-paper method. We found no marked difference in the average duration of the interview between methods (EQ, 5.4 minutes; paper, 5.6 minutes).

Conclusion: This validation study suggests that the EQ may offer increased accuracy, similar interview duration, and increased cost-effectiveness compared with paper-based data collection methods. The APCDR EQ software is freely available (https://github.com/apcdr/questionnaire).

Keywords: Data capture; Electronic questionnaire; Epidemiology; Open-source; Sub-Saharan Africa; Survey.

Fig. 1

Sample electronic questionnaire screen presenting a multiple-choice question. GPS, Global Positioning System.

Fig. 2

Worked example of estimated time taken to recoup costs using the EQ method. EQ, electronic questionnaire. ^aSalary estimates are based on formulae presented by Walther et al. (see Table 3). ^bEquipment costs are taken from Table 3.